Word: sihanouk
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...Richard Nixon, Cambodia posed the most difficult problem of prognosis (see THE WORLD). Since the overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk three weeks ago, the capital of Phnom-Penh has lived in fear that 40,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops in Cambodia might exploit confusion in the countryside to march on the capital and upset Premier General Lon Nol's government. From his exile in Peking, Sihanouk has promised to return at the head of an army of liberation. For Washington, the dilemma is: what to do if the situation gets so bad that...
Despite the new outbreak of fighting in Viet Nam, Cambodia seems at present to be the most dangerous situation. In the first days after the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk by Premier General Lon Nol and Deputy Premier Prince Sirik Matak, there was next to no opposition to the new regime. But during the past two weeks, violent pro-Sihanouk demonstrations have taken place in at least half a dozen rural areas. The worst outbreak known thus far occurred in the town of Kompong Cham, where Vietnamese agitators led a pro-Sihanouk riot. Before Cambodian troops could put down the fighting...
Publicly, local Vietnamese were blamed for what seems to have been a V.C. order to riot; but a Cambodian official admitted privately that "most of the mob were Cambodians. They were confused. To them Sihanouk was a god-prince-we cannot undo in a few days what Sihanouk did in years...
Still, one Western diplomat suggested that if Sihanouk were to turn up at the airport tomorrow, "the guards, instead of arresting him, would probably prostrate themselves before him." To cut Sihanouk down to size, the government began waging an intensive propaganda campaign. The local press, which had previously referred to him as a god-prince, mocked him savagely and his half-Italian wife Princess Monique even more. Some newspapers ran composite photos of her head on anonymous nude bodies in obscene poses. The prince's popularity, however, remained a troublesome factor...
...Army Affair. An equally serious difficulty was the Communist Vietnamese military presence. Before Sihanouk's fall, Lon Nol called on the Communists to evacuate their Cambodian sanctuaries immediately. That demand was not emphasized publicly after the takeover. Nonetheless, Sirik Matak told TIME Correspondent Burton Pines in Phnom-Penh that getting rid of the Communist forces remained a primary goal. "We demand that they immediately leave our territory," the prince said. "Sihanouk violated his own-and our-proclaimed policy of neutralism by permitting the Vietnamese foreigners to stay inside Cambodia. We cannot tolerate it. We have every expectation that this...